How to cook rice
Katerina Pavlakis And how to add flavour too
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In the year of 2004 I did something crazy: I agreed to take on the project of organising a concert tour across Europe with a large group of Indonesian musicians (17 of them on that occasion!)
It was a rollercoaster ride of incredible music, lasting cross-cultural connections and improbable logistical challenges - I still can't quite believe we did it (and even did it again and again for a few years after that).
Feeding this number of people on a bootstrap, especially on 'off' days where there was no concert catering to count on, was one of the biggest headaches. Eating out 3 times a day was out of the question budget-wise, and cooking in a hotel room was obviously not allowed, not even the really cheap ones (this was before the era of airbnb...).
As rice is a staple of the Indonesian cooking, I thought getting a rice cooker was a good idea to start with. But I was amazed how creative my Indonesian friends got with making whole meals using that rice cooker only (while maintaining they were not really cooking when hotel staff got nosy). You do what you have to do... (Btw, I now know that 'rice cooker meals' are a thing, just do a search and see!)
Rice cookers are extremely common in Asia, where rice is usually eaten with every meal of the day, and a pot of cooked rice is on the go all day long. Many people in our part of the world like them too as a way to cook rice perfectly and easily.
For how to cook rice seems like a contentious question.
If you look it up, cooking rice seems like a veritable maze... the best way, the easy way, the correct way, for babies, for dogs, for one person, or for many... And of course all these instructions each come in variations for cooking it in pots, pans, microwaves, slow cookers, rice cookers, ovens etc. It's mind boggling (a quick search brought up 2,580,000,000 results - that's billions, not millions).
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Funnily enough, this is not a question I ever ask myself - even after spending several months in the company of my Indonesian friends:
I just cook rice the way my mum cooks rice, and it works for me, every single time.
So I'll actually jump into the the fray and share my method below - plus a few tasty ideas for adding flavour, just because.
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Whatever you do though, keep in mind: there is no right or wrong way to cook rice.
The right method is the method that works for you, whether it's adopted and adapted from a book, from youtube or from your mum. If you haven't got a favourite method yet, simply accept that you'll need to do a few test runs. Not every result will be perfect (take notes and tweak!) but I guarantee it will all be edible!
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How to cook rice
- The proportions are key: 1 parts rice, 2 parts water (add a half more water for brown rice).
- Put the rice and cold water in a pan, add a good pinch of salt, put the lid on and bring to the boil.
- As soon as it boils lower the heat to a very gentle simmer.
- Let it simmer gently until all the water has been absorbed and steam holes form in the rice (usually 15-25 minutes depending on rice type and quantity - brown rice needs longer).
- Take the pot off the heat, leave the lid on and rest for at least 15 minutes.
- Fluff up the rice with a fork and serve.
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Tips to keep in mind
- Sometimes I wash the rice before cooking (this flushes out some of the superficial starch making the rice less sticky) and sometimes I don't bother. I wouldn't say it makes a significant difference.
- A gentle simmer is important or the water will evaporate quicker than the rice cooks through.
- You need a bit of extra water for brown rice for the same reason: it needs to cook longer so it needs more liquid to absorb.
- Also for the same reason, keep the lid on, especially for the rest period at the end, as the steam is finishing the cooking. Try to lift the lid to check the rice as few times as possible too.
- You do need to keep an eye on it though: if you keep the heat on after the liquid has absorbed, the bottom will start sticking, then burning (Not necessarily a bad thing: a golden sticky bottom crust (tahdig) is highly prized in Persian cooking.)
- You must use a fork to fluff it up at the end - using a spoon or spatula will crush the rice grains and make it mushy and sticky.
Plain rice is very useful: an easy and filling side dish, made into fried rice to gobble up leftovers and as a base for 'bowl' type meals, especially if you have picky eaters. But it is plain boring too.
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Extra flavour
To jazz things up, it is really easy to add extra flavour, while still sticking to the same simple cooking process above:
Flavour the cooking liquid:
Use something flavourful instead of or part of the cooking water. So many possibilities here!
- Stock or broth (fresh, or in paste/powder/cube form)
- Coconut milk
- Tomato passata
- Or simply use the water used to boil other veggies (a lot of flavour - and nutrients - leaches into the water when boiling veggies)
Add spices:
Just a bit of spice can have an amazing effect.
- Try a stick of cinnamon, a few crushed cardamom pods or garlic cloves, a slice of ginger, some coriander seeds or allspice berries (choose one or try a mix).
- Whole spices can be pulled out later quite easily, ground spices will melt into the rice. Play around with the quantities to find how much extra flavour you like in your rice.
- For extra flavour fry the spices for a couple of minutes in a bit of oil, butter or ghee, before adding to the rice & liquid.
- For even more flavour, soften some onions (with or without spices) before adding liquid and rice.
Add colour:
Use turmeric for yellow, grated beetroot for purple, grated carrot for orange, pureed spinach for green or tomato puree for a red tinge.
Add herbs:
For a fresh edge add a handful of chopped herbs and/or some lemon zest at the end (mix through while fluffing it up).
Cook something in your rice:
For example, greens (spinach, kale, chard, leeks....) or tomatoes.
In Greece this is a very common type of rice dish (the spinach version is known as spanakorizo) and something I make often.
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Which takes us to a whole other chapter of cooking with rice - I'll get into that some other time.
For now I hope you might be inspired to have a bit of fun with flavouring your rice! (and stop worrying about doing it right).
